03/08/2017
MEDIA STATEMENT ON THE STRIKE BY THE SUPPORT STAFF IN THE JUDICIARY
1. As the nation is now aware, members of the support staff in the Judiciary have been on strike since Monday July 31, 2017. The gist of their grievance is that they want their employer to pay them a housing allowance just like one is paid to judicial officers. It bears noting that members of the support staff in the Judiciary are not judicial officers. In terms of the Judicature Administration Act, therefore, their conditions of service are determined by the Judicial Service Commission. The conditions of service for judicial officers, however, are determined by the National Assembly in line with the relevant constitutional provisions.
2. The Society has previously lamented the shutdown of the Courts, which regrettably for our nation, is something that is now occurring with alarming regularity. In any well-functioning democracy, courts, by the very nature of the business that they undertake, are never supposed to be shut down and rendered inaccessible to all those who might wish to call them in their aid from time to time. Closure of the courts denies our citizens justice, compromises the right of lawyers and those employed by them to earn a living and profoundly damages our nation’s credibility as a serious destination for foreign direct investment. It really is to our nation’s great discredit that this constitutional aberration is somehow being normalized.
3. What makes our situation even more remarkable is the apparent failure to invest in robust institutional mechanisms for dealing with grievances that those who populate the ranks of the Judiciary, be it in a judicial or supporting capacity, raise. It is not entirely responsible to allow industrial disputes in the Judiciary to result in full blown strikes before serious attention is paid to them.
4. We strongly urge the government, the Judicial Service Commission and the striking members of the Judiciary to resolve this dispute as a matter of grave urgency so that the courts resume their normal business.
5. The Society shall continue to be seized of this matter and reserves its right to take such lawful steps as may be necessary for the protection of the public interests.
Dated this 3rd day of August, 2017
Signed:
Khumbo Bonzoe Soko (Chairman) Michael Goba Chipeta (Secretary)
